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The Groaning Of Creation: Creation’s Hope (Part 37c of 83)

The Groaning of Creation

Creation’s Hope

In a Brief Survey
of the Epistle of Paul to the RomansBased on sermons
preached in PCC Worship Services, July 2003 to Sep 2005Part 37c of 83

“19
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of
the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For
we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now” (Romans 8:19-22).

[By “the creature,” the apostle Paul is referring
everything in the environment in which man lives. We may speak of it in
shorthand as creation. Creation is, of course, irrational and therefore cannot
feel or hope. So Paul is clearly metaphorically when he speaks of the hope and
expectation of the creature. But what is the hope and expectation of the
creature. This is what we have to consider as we wrap up our exposition on our
text—JJL]

3.The ‘Hope’ of the Creature

Creation is groaning and hoping for two things.

First, it is looking forward to “the manifestation of the sons of God.” We saw that in verse 19. The
word rendered ‘manifestation’ is rendered ‘revelation’ 12 out of 18 times in the New Testament. It speaks literally of an
unveiling of something that has been hidden.

All creation is looking forward to the unveiling of
the sons and daughters of God!

The apostle John puts it strikingly when he says:

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he [Christ] shall appear,
we shall be like him…” (1 Jn 3:2)

The children of God are already children of God today.
We have been born again. We have the Spirit of Adoption indwelling us. We have
already been adopted as the sons and daughters of God.But our status is still, in a sense, hidden from the
world. What hides us? Sin, suffering, poverty, death,—all these hide the true
status of the children of God.

What is the true status of the children of God?
Holiness, perfect righteousness, blessedness, heavenly riches and honour and
immortality!

·God is holy and perfect. His children should, therefore, be holy and perfect. But today they are not. So we look like everyone else.
We can hardly be distinguished from the children of wrath. Sin veils the sons
of God.

·Likewise,
God is eternally and infinitely
blessed. His children should therefore be blessed. But today we are not. Our
joys are always mingled with sorrow and suffering. So it is often difficult to
tell a child of God apart from a child of Satan by looking at our lives. Pain
and suffering veils the sons of God.

·Again, God is Sovereign: He is rich and powerful. His
children therefore should be rich and powerful. But today, we are generally
not. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (1 Cor 1:26), says the
apostle Paul. Most of the rich and powerful people in the world are ungodly
persons. The children of God
often have nothing,—even as our Lord had nothing. Therefore no one will believe
that we are the children of God when they look at us today. Poverty veils the
child of God.

·Similarly, God is the ‘I AM.’ He will never die. He is the
giver of life. Therefore, the sons and daughters of God should not die. But
today we still decay and die. Yes we have eternal life. But today, you can
hardly tell that a person has eternal life. Look at two dead bodies lying side
by side. One is a child of God, and other is a child of wrath. Can you tell who
the child of God is? They are both dead. So today, death veils the true
status of the child of God.

Sin, suffering, poverty, death,—all these hide the
true status of the sons and daughters of God. This is why both the apostle Paul
and the apostle John speak of our revelation as the children of God at the Last
Day.

The whole creation, according to Paul, is straining
its neck, and looking expectedly for that to happen. At the Last Day, when
Christ shall return, God will remove the veil that covers the sons and
daughters of God. In that day, the whole world will see who we really are.

In that day, we should be as Christ our elder brother
is: perfect and holy, blessed, rich and powerful, and immortal.

This is the first thing that all creation is, as it
were, earnestly looking forward to. It is earnestly expecting the manifestation
of the sons of God.

But secondly, it is also looking forward to
freedom from the bondage of
corruption:

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of
God.

All creation, as we saw, is held bondage to
corruption. Death and decay is inevitable today. We see it everywhere. Maybe
you did not notice it because you are so used to it, or maybe you have not gone
out to the open enough.

Singapore is really not as clean as many of us think
it is. Go to the beautiful Xiao Guiling. If you are driving by, it looks
beautiful and pristine. But take a walk by the lake, and look at the water.
Smell it. Notice how polluted it is. There is death and corruption in the
water. The fishes in them, if you can see them are sickly. Almost every public
pond in Singapore is dead or dying because irresponsible pet owners have
released their cute terrapins into them when they grew too big
for their little tanks.

Every time I look at these ponds, I feel a sense of
disgust; and I am reminded of how creation is held under bondage to corruption
today. But the corruption of today, says Paul, speaks of better days to come.

Thank God that one day, creation will be
freed. It will be freed from the
bondage of corruption. It will be released into the glorious liberty, which
will be enjoyed by the children of God.

What is the “glorious liberty of the children of God”?
Today we are held in bondage. We cannot glorify and enjoy God as we desire to.
Our hands are bound by the chains of sin. One day the chains will fall off. We
shall be freed. We shall have perfect heart, perfect will and perfect mind to glorify God and to enjoy Him fully.

Let me put it this way: All creation is waiting for
the children of God to be released to play. It knows that only when the
children of God are ready to be released will it be renovated. It desires to be renovated. It
desires to be used by the children of God to enjoy and glorify God.

All creation is travailing and groaning in pain today
as it looks forward to that day. When that day comes, creation will also be
freed from its bondage to corruption and from its subjection to vanity. Why?
Because man would in that day be able to use creation as it was originally
designed for.

In that day the groaning of creation will turn into
rapturous joy. The apostle Peter calls it the “times of restitution of all
things” (Acts 3:21). The Prophet Isaiah anticipating such a time burst out into
beautiful poetry:

“… the mountains and the hills shall break forth
before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands”
(Isa 55:12).

What will be the reason for this joy? The reason is the manifestation
of the sons and daughters of God. The sons and daughters of God will be raised
up in glory. They will enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God.

When that happens, creation will be renewed. There
will be a new heaven and a new earth for the sons of God to dwell in. There
will be, as it were, new trees, new plants, new creatures all perfectly suited
for the enjoyment of the sons and daughters of God in their glory.

Then will come to pass all the covenant promises of God
revealed in the Scripture. Then
paradise will be restored. Then will the seed of Abraham possess the heavenly
Canaan. Then will every prophetic loose end be tied.

It may be asked: Will there be literal plants and
trees? Will we see the Angsana and Casurina? Will we see the frangipani and the
hibiscus? Will there be literal animals? Will we see the elephants and tigers?
Will we see the corals and fishes? I don’t know.

Some theologians think that nothing of our present
order of things will be preserved. They believe that the new heaven and new
earth is merely a symbolic description of the blessings which the sons and
daughters of God enjoy under the new covenant.

I am, personally, inclined to think that heaven and
earth will be merged into one. But there will at least be an equivalent or a
representation of each of the species of life that we can find today.

I believe that as we will be raised body and soul, the
physical creation will also have a part to play in our eternal enjoyment of
God.

But that is not the most important thing. It is not
the point that the apostle Paul is seeking to bring across.

What is the point that Paul is seeking to bring
across?

The point is: we cannot fully imagine the great glory
and enjoyment that awaits the faithful children of God.

Today, as the sons and daughter of God, you will suffer.
The road to the Celestial City is paved with the stones of tribulation and
suffering. Yes, the suffering that you have to endure are not unavoidable in
the sense that you can choose not to suffer. But if you are a child of God, you
know it is inevitable. You will choose Christ over your honour, Christ over the
praises of men, Christ over your wealth, Christ over your comfort, Christ over
your pleasures.

If you are walking faithfully as a child of God, you
will suffer.

·Perhaps you have a miserable marriage. If you are not
a child of God, you would have walked away long ago. But because
you are a child of God,
you know that for Christ’s sake,
you must remain faithful in the marriage. You are suffering for Christ.

·Perhaps you are still single and in a way you are
suffering because you long greatly in your heart to have a companion for life.
If you are not a child of God, you would have given up and married that
unbeliever who tried to court you. But for Christ’s sake you turn him down. You
are suffering for Christ.

·Perhaps you are have been having a hard time looking
for a job. If you are not a Christian, you would have taken up many job offers
that pay well but requires you to work on the Sabbath. But you are a child of
God, and you want to honour Christ by not desecrating His Day. So you have remained jobless. You are suffering
for Christ sake.

Whatever the reason for your suffering for Christ, let
it encourage you to know that the suffering will only last a little while
compared to eternity. And the suffering of this present time is not worthy to
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in you. So great is the glory that is waiting for you
that the whole creation is stretching out its neck and groaning and travailing
in pain as it awaits it.

Conclusion

Will you, therefore, not look forward to that day?
Even the brute creation is, as it were, looking forward to that day. It is
looking forward to the day when you shall be manifested as a son or daughter of
God.

When that day comes, all who suffer for Christ
today—who therefore prove themselves to be the sons and daughter of God
today,—will enter into eternal glory.

You will enjoy paradise renewed. You will enjoy God
without anything to hinder you. Sin will not hinder you. You will
have no sin. All the residents in
paradise will have no sin, for no sinners will
be allowed into the gates of Paradise. And not only will sin not trouble you, nothing in your dwelling place
will trouble you, for everything will be restored to its original perfection.

What a prospect! Therefore take courage beloved
brethren. Are you suffering severely today? Take courage. One day you will laugh in heaven.

Let the knowledge that creation sympathises with you and is groaning with you encourage you with
the hope of better days to come.

Therefore when you are feeling down and discouraged, remember to go out into the open. When was the last
time you go to one of the nature parks?

Look at the wondrous creation of God. Enjoy the
breeze, enjoy the music of the birds and the cicadas. Behold the beauty of the birds in the sky. Smell the
flowers and fresh cut grass. Thank God that he has made all these things. Thank
God that you can enjoy them. But remember that today all creation is subject to
vanity and to bondage of corruption.

Remember that your present enjoyment is only a little
hint of what great enjoyment is awaiting you in paradise to come. Ye sons and
daughters of God who today suffer for Christ’s sake,—be assured that the
suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in you.

But what of you who would not suffer for Christ today?
May I remind you that such as are truly sons and daughters of God will choose
to suffer for Christ today.

If you will not suffer for Him today, then I am afraid,
you will have no part in the everlasting kingdom of joy. And neither will you
enjoy even the earth as it is today.

Let me remind you of the words of the apostle Peter in
1 Peter 3:7—.

7 But
the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

…10
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

The 2nd Coming of Christ will be attended
with great and glorious changes of the external world. But it is also a day of great
judgement. It is a day when God will separate the righteous from the
unrighteous. It is a day that God the Father will separate His children from the children of wrath—for in the new
heaven and new earth, there will only dwell righteousness. God will not permit
the unrighteous to pollute His new creation with their sin.

The prophet Malachi reminds us that a book of
remembrance is being written today on behalf of those who fear the LORD and
think upon His name. In the Last Day, this book will be opened, and these will treated as children and spared from
God’s wrath that will befall the wicked. In this way God will distinguish between the righteous and the wicked and
between those who serve Him and those who do not (Mal 5:3:15-16).

All who are not united to Christ will remain
unrighteous and children of wrath. They will have no place in the new heaven
and new earth, for in the new heaven and new earth dwells righteousness. The question is: Which side of the
divide will you stand?

Oh dear reader, will you not seek the Lord while He may be found. Even the brute creation is, as it
were, looking forward to the day of judgement. You who have a rational mind to
think, will you not turn to the Lord and fear Him while he is yet calling
sinners unto himself? Amen.